Ahhhh, the New Year.

I've been reminiscing over the last year, since of course the New Year's arrival has inspired thoughts of the things to come.  I love the reflection and expectation that a new year brings, a blank slate for new beginnings and closure for what has been.

I'm really looking forward for this year because I am nearly positive that it is going to be full of only planned craziness, none of this out of control crazy that my life seems to have a way of attracting.  For instance, we plan on buying a house this year, which will be a whirlwind, but a planned adventure as well.

Once, I tried to count how many houses I've lived in during my lifetime and I lost count in the mid 20s.  You can imagine how exciting it will be for me to move into a home, own it, and plan on staying in it for (what?!?!) years.  I'll just have to learn to fulfill my gypsy needs with travel rather than with obsessive moving.

Some of the unplanned crazy from 2011, because I feel like sharing:


Matt proposed.

I homeschooled my kids for two months while we were stranded in relocated to Oklahoma City for Matt's job training

We drove halfway across the country twice with two kids, a dog, a lizard, and a ferret, and finally made it here to a different house, and a different state, to start a new life together.

I started this blog (181 posts!), mostly to help keep me sane while I homeschooled the kids in Oklahoma.  I learned a lot about HTML and gained a huge appreciation for public school.

I got married.

I started my Etsy shop (65 sales!!), also to keep myself from going crazy as a new housewife.  The dishes are only entertaining for so long...I learned a lot about owning an online business, paypal, and macro digital photography.



So there you are, a glimpse through my last year, pretty crazy/exciting, right?  Cheers to the up and coming 2012, to stability, settling in, and more craziness (but please more of the planned-for variety).

Happy New Year Y'all!

Latest Adventures in Moving

Now, we are here.  In a house (and with internet).  Hooray!  But not without some interesting moments...


We backed the Uhaul into a ditch in rural Portland.  (Seriously, could only giggle about it...what else could I do?)  Luckily a helpful neighbor with a powerful truck and a wench rolled up and pulled us out.  Thank you wonderful helpful person and your truck!

In a Ditch

Hours (actually 3 days) of frustrating house hunting time spent in the car...this shot shows me smiling deliriously (either that, or I'm looking at Matt with a look of desperation that can say only one thing, "find me a house this instant!").

Then we did find a house really close to Matt's work, they allowed dogs, and it wasn't a dingy over-priced fixer-upper of a house.  


I have to rant for a second about the rental market and being a pet owner.  When a property manager shows me a house and the smell of the house inside is enough to make me want to hurl, and the property manager sighs and says, the owner just won't allow pets...I get pretty confused.  A few houses we looked through were yucky enough that they couldn't have paid me to live there, much less expect me to be eternally grateful for allowing my pet to live there too but only if I gave them an additional $1000 pet deposit (I'm not kidding or exaggerating).


Anyway, the house we found is perfect, clean, new, safe, and all of those other things everyone wants in a house.  And the property manager had reasonable deposit requirements.  So on to the unloading of the Uhaul:

Yes, those are antlers

At the end of the day, we deserved a bit of R&R; redbox and Jiffy Pop.

Taking Down the Tent

Like a circus tent falling gracefully to the ground, the little fleeting life we built here is exhaling its last breathe.  The knot in my stomache, part nerves, part christmas-like anticipation, will only let up when we reach some sort of restful state.  

Destination:  Portland!!

But before that, a trip back home, across half the country to get our things, all left neatly (and half-hazardly) in storage.  Then on with fingers crossed to Portland (a town I have always loved...with its not too bigness and not too smallness) in hopes that we line up a nice house to rent.  (I know we will, but the anticipation is dreadful and I'm holding my breath till the perfect thing falls out of the sky (it will, it will!!).)

Also before Portland, Matt has to pass his exams.  Here is the note I will be slipping in his shirt pocket for inspiration (don't tell):