house news

We made an offer yesterday on a house that's about 5 miles down KGB road. The offer was accepted and now we're heading towards closing.

...from Little House on the Prairie to Little House in the Big Woods.

It's cute and brand new and by the end of February, it should be ours. Yay!

There are three bedrooms and two full baths. The house faces south and sits on an acre with verrry tall trees. The original buyer chose some nice upgrades before her financing fell through. Immediate needs are a refrigerator and a washer/dryer set. In the spring we'll do something about the yard, and next year we'll add a garage. For now, the crawlspace will probably fit 90% of our junk.

The girls will finish out this school year at Cottonwood, but transfer to KGB Elementary in the fall.

More good news: the van should be done tomorrow! So everything's falling into place.

houses viewed so far: 4

I need to find Dr. Phil's Guide to Home-Buying. He's written one by now, right?
"Stop measuring your self-worth as a function of..."
...what size house you can afford to buy
...what neighborhood you settle for
...whether or not you have a garage, landscaping, a backyard playset blah blah blah

This is stressful. Maybe if I look hard enough I can find my yoga DVD.

wide angle

There have been countless factors which brought our little family to where we are today. It's easy to see (and write) using this close-up, critical point of view... but I need to say that yes, I do see the big picture, no matter how much I luuuuv complaining about apartment life or finances.

K sacrificed a job and lifestyle he loved so that I can be healthier. LittleK and R don't suffer much from our big move, but T has an obvious, daily sadness about her because she left so many meaningful people and things behind. Not a week goes by without her reminding us that she will one day live in a house on the prairie again, with her own horses, next door to her best friend.

So, laugh with me about the neighbors, the van, the dog and all of my other microscopic problems... and understand the gratitude I have to just be alive, with the people who luuuuuv me so much.

things that roar in the night

Um, it's 1 a.m. on a Wednesday and there's someone outside driving a truck through the parking lot, running a sand-spreader over the huge expanse of ice. It's louder than a lawnmower. What is it with this place?

Yes, I'm awake and blogging at 1 a.m. on a Wednesday but that's not as bizarre or annoying as the Phantom Sandman.

Happily, I can say we're one step closer to buying a Wasilla home which I guarantee will be nowhere near any huge icy parking lot. I also hope to be living far from pot-dealers, late-night bongo dudes and anyone with a pack-a-day habit. The step which brought us closer is the AHFC HomeChoice seminar I attended tonight. It's eight hours of solid, basic information for homebuyers (four hours over two evenings). It also gives us $250 off of one of the closing fees. So, yay for us.

Sunday in Anchorage turned into two days of visiting with my "Golovin Gramma", as we used to call her thirty years ago. Cousins, aunts, uncles, most of whom we see maybe twice a year were all there for dinner on Sunday. We got to hear special stories from Nuz' childhood and learn Inupiaq and Yup'ik phrases like gussangnaghakmakut (ah, these half-breeds are no good) and one other one that means "feathers will grow out of your (behind)". The comment about half-breeds was something that her mom said long before her own family was indundated with 'half-breeds'. My grandma grew up speaking both Inupiaq and Yup'ik, so the words that filter down to my generation are a rich, if confusing, mixture of both.
The skiing day was postponed until weather conditions are better. It may not happen until late in the ski season, actually.
This week is another big one for soccer, ballet, and Girl Scouts, including a sleepover with T's troop on Friday. The girls' school is having a 'Family Dance' that same night, since the P.E. teacher has taught all the upper grades how to do the Macarena and the Electric Slide. Our daughter has already expressed her distaste for that whole prospect. We also have to chat with a mortgage lender on Thursday in Anchorage. I got so used to sitting on the couch reading that I'm finding it hard to be productive again. (wait, was I ever?)
Maybe I'll stay up a little longer to see the next float in the Parking Lot Parade.

pass the Tums

I admit it, I've been a lazy bum since K got back. He hasn't been called in for any flights, so we're getting some intensive Family Time this month. I hope it makes up a little for the No-Dad days on the girls' birthdays, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Eve.
I haven't felt very well and haven't been eating much lately. Nothing smells, looks, sounds or tastes good! I spent the worst three days of it just reading Eragon on the couch. I also finished East, a retelling of an old Norwegian folk tale about a girl, a polar bear and some trolls. They're young-adult books I checked out from the library to read at the same time T reads them. I'm not sure about letting her read the ugly war stories in Eragon, but she's been able to process (slightly) similar stuff in the HP series and in the LOTR movies. My girls also get into Star Wars and have their own rendition of "LUKE.... I AM YOUR FAH-THUH."
R is making the occasional three-word sentence. It started last week with "DON'T DOO DAT!" He's slowly picking up on some beginning-sounds as well.
LittleK is reading, reading, reading! We love it.
The Busy Schedule Season is here: we had Movie Night at the school last night, we leave in about half an hour for the Girl Scouts Gymnastics Night, tomorrow we head to Anchorage to visit my Gramma Nuz at Mom & John's house, K's taking the girls to Alyeska for a ski-day tomorrow or Monday, I have a homebuyers' seminar next week, doctor appointments, and another bookorder to process next Thursday. There are too many things actually to mention right now and my brain is full.
We've got some prospects in the house-search. The loan we were pre-approved for will provide us with a house about the size of most of our family's and friends' garages.
Get sick, and the dream changes a bit.

The Return of the Dad

K got back on Friday night, after being gone for 21 days. He'd flown to Detroit, Albuquerque, Bangor, Opa Locka, Bogota Columbia, and probably a few other places. He and the crew had a lot of down-time in and near Miami, where the beaches were filled with "topless women and gay men".

I can't even express how much more relaxed and happy we all are with K home.

On New Year's Eve, the kids and I met Auntie Peggy, Uncle Pat and their girls downtown. T skated, K mostly fell down, and we all had fun, especially during the fireworks show. It was very crowded and pretty cold, but nothing like last year. After fireworks, we ate with Peg and then we all crashed Gramma & Grampy's New Year's Eve fiddle dance. Those folks are there to dance and have fun but they're as serious as if they were having a church service... Uncle Pat won a door prize, we sang Auld Lang Syne, and the kids' heads finally hit the pillows at about 2am.
The van's transmission is mostly likely "toast", as described by the service guy. They can't get a computer diagnosis on it because the wiring has a problem too. It's going to be expensive. But a mama needs her van, so we'll get it fixed and have it back in about two weeks. No sense entertaining new-car fantasies. Just new-house ones.
Time to knit, since I'm not the fight referee today.