Living on the Edge

Happy Thanksgiving!

So we won't be eating Thanksgiving dinner in our new house since it's completely empty of all our belongings and where my kitchen stuff is in storage is beyond our ability to find...but we are Thankful that the contractors are so very close to finishing and that if we really wanted to buy a pre-made dinner and eat on the floor we could...Instead we are also thankful to our friends Lisa and Mike who are taking not only the four of us under their turkey wing this Thanksgiving day, but also my parents who fly in at noon today!

Although I don't get to cook a bird this Thanksgiving...we do get to unpack the tree and all the fixings as we move in to wonderful new home! 

 
So HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL in 2009!

Here is the declaration made by George Washington to create the first Thanksgiving!  We've been talking a lot of history in the house lately...now that the girls are old enough to really wonder why things are the way they are.....

WHEREAS it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favour; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me "to recommend to the people of the United States a DAY OF PUBLIC THANKSGIVING and PRAYER, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:"

NOW THEREFORE, I do recommend and assign THURSDAY, the TWENTY-SIXTH DAY of NOVEMBER next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed;-- for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish Constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted;-- for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge;-- and, in general, for all the great and various favours which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also, that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions;-- to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us); and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

GIVEN under my hand, at the city of New-York, the third day of October, in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine.

George Washington

Belated updates...

Here are photos from the last couple of days.  Although it's been frustrating having our builder go hunting for two days and the subs not show up in his absence...things are creeping along.  The carpet guy is nice, but he works by himself--he says he prefers that--and works at a snails pace.  He's not a morning person either so on Saturday he didn't show up till 12:30 and didn't finish the job that he was scheduled to do.  "yeah, I'll be back at the beginning of the week...."  Not a good thing to hear from someone who was already supposed to be done.

Then the siding guys left on Friday at noon...with their job unfinished.  Could it be that they had hunting plans too?  Finally, to top it off, the driveway crew just didn't show up!  Now we have over 4 inches of snow on the ground.  Wonder how they plan to pour in the snow?!

On the upside...here are pictures from the house.  It is so exciting...being just days away from moving in to our 'happily ever after.'

  

Yeah, I know...I keep posting pictures of my tub.  I did say MY tub right?  Look, it was ready for me...if only there weren't contractors around that day, I might have been tempted.
 

The kitchen and bathroom counters are in.  he did a beautiful job on them.  They were the perfect color to accent the cherry cabinets.
 

dirty, dirty...so much dust to clean.  Everyone felt the need to bring their saw into the house.
 

The gables are almost done over the garage.  The snow seems to cover a lot of what still needs to be done.  It's so pretty! Can't wait to be home sweet home!
 

Found this handmade chest at the Custer's Christmas craft show today.  We won free tickets the other day on KXLY's Goodmorning Northwest show.  It was made by a very talented couple that call their business, Grassroots Company.  They are local to our area...somewhere.  This chest is going in the living room as a window seat under the big window.  Perfect for sitting and watching for moose! And under the seat is storage as well!
 

Here's a closeup of the moose detail.

First Snow at the New House!

It snowed today.  It didn't really stick in Liberty Lake except for patchy places in the grass.  It was enough though for my baby Buddy, the 90 pound wimp, to forgo his usual evening walk...except to do the necessary doggy business.

There was more snow up in Rathdrum.  We had a few inches by the time we got to the house.  It was so pretty.

  

CC said it was perfect snowball snow and tried a few out on dad.
 

Oh so pretty...maybe this one will need lights for Christmas!  Ooops, DD is reading over my shoulder and just said "oh, crap"....guess he doesn't like the idea.  It's not a big tree honey, really!
 

Fun shot through the car windshield before we started it up.

  

The girls' winter coats came just in time from LL Bean.  Yeah, they are a bit big...but when you pay that much they will last two winters, dang it!

Things are really rolling along!

I had 18 conferences today.  It was wonderful to meet with all the parents.  Everyone is doing really well this fall and it's fun to share their work with their parents.  But going over report card after report card is exhausting in one day.  Heck, it was exhausting in the school district I taught in before and they did it over the course of a week!

I had a nice break for an hour and headed over to the new house to see what's been going on...very exciting. And darn it only adds to the anticipation!

 
There's nothing better than not being able to park in my driveway because there are so many workers parked there! 

 
Here's this week's picture from the 'turn-around-tree.'  Look at the siding!  And the rockwork is just about complete.

 
This is the same rock that is around the wood stove inside the house....

 
Look at our pretty floors!  I can't wait till we can put our furniture on them!

  

Dining room.  Love the Humble Gold.  No reference to Humboldt Gold for sure!

Soon to be my kitchen.  Cooking is calling!

  

I just love how this bathroom floor turned out! It's so hard to choose things separately.  You kind of hold your breath and hope that it all works together.  This goes really well with the hickory cabinets.
 

DD picked out the doors for the house.  He finally got some bead board in the house!
 

If you need me the first week we are in the house....I'll be here!  Don't block my view of the moose!
 

Our bonus room has a great shape.  Lots of room for the kids to hang out in...and for guests to stay in as well!

Winter's Creeping Up On Us!

So I opened my MSN page today and the weather popped up.  A bit of difference between my hometown growing up and the hometown I'm growing my children up in!

 

Which one would you rather be living in this week?  I know where my mom prefers to be :-)

Dig out the old long johns from storage!  Mt. Spokane and LookOut Pass are talking about opening the ski slopes soon.  The trees don't have leaves anymore.  You can hear the tick tick tick of the studded tires hitting the roads.  Oh, and our builder said that they won't be able to paint our house till spring because it's too cold right now!  (Fortunately it won't hold up final inspection!  Life in the Inland Northwest!) Winter is just around the corner!

Thank You to all our military past and present!

This is one of my favorite commercials.  I would love to be in an airport sometime and be able to do this for our soldiers coming home!

Coors Lite Monday Night Football Commercial--too funny!

I heard this last night on the radio.  They played the whole thing like it was a song.  What a clever commercial.  It sounds like some men's club choir singing an ode to Coors lite and Monday Night Football!  I don't know of a tv commercial to go with this, but it could be so funny.  I'm just picturing some midwest cheeseheads with painted bodies....the visual is crazy!

coors light sound bite  Coors sound bites

James Taylor of Humboldt County!

Mike Craghead and his wife, Dawn are friends of ours...from when we all didn't have kids :-)  I sort of remember those days.  Then we had dogs and kids...yeah in that order.  We were dog-in-laws because we adopted pups from the same litter.  Rocky and Roslyn.  Two awesome dogs!  They are both up playing together in doggy heaven now.

Mike is an amazing songwriter, singer and musician.  It's quite a talent to be all three these days.  We used to go see him play around town in different venues when we lived there.  Our oldest, Q, really liked listening to him when I was pregnant with her.  She would jump all around in my tummy when he played.  It was very funny.  She still loves music even now.  Thanks Mike for starting her out well!

We have moved on to other dogs and to other places, but it is fun to be able to see him play online now!  One of the many reasons why I love the internet.  The world stays a lot smaller this way. Staying connected and involved with friends' and family's lives is so much easier now.  Man, if the Donner Party online had a wifi connection they wouldn't have tried to cross the desert OR the Sierra Nevadas so late in the year.

So here he is performing one of his originals.  Enjoy!

A Work in Progress

It seems like forever!  It's only been 4 months since we moved out of our house.  I can't say it was 4 months since it sold because there were all sorts of hangups with the buyers' lender.  FHA = government and we know how well the wheels of government turns.  We went three weeks past closing of escrow!

 
So the garage in Washington was emptied and we moved on to Idaho...

 
We found our piece of heaven...6 acres worth....

 
So we found the land, got the construction loan...and...well....waited!  Waited for Kootenai County to issue the building permit.  It took four loooooong weeks to get the magic piece of paper so....

 
the boys could bring their big toys out to play!

 
Here's the corner of our future home.

 
Clearing the land for the house and the shop.

 
Our hole is there!

 
First of the cement is poured...Finally something to show off to friends!

 
Lots more cement for our garage and shop floors.  Sorry CC, it's too hard to leave your mark!

 
The floor....got to start somewhere.

 
The walls take shape finally!

 
The girls are hanging out in their new bedrooms!

 
The roof is raised!

 
Trusses going every which way!

 
Now it's starting to look like our home.

 
The house is wrapped...kind of like a present.  Can't wait to unwrap it!

 
Windows are in and the felt is on the roof.

 
Here comes the roof...along with the weather.  See the gray clouds in the sky?  We've had a bit of rain this fall.  Fortunately no snow yet.

 
The trim along the roof is painted..."Vogue Green".  We are so hip!

 
Now comes the inside work...insulation....lots in our bedroom with our day sleeper.

 
Electricity.  I'm such a girl...aren't they pretty colors?

 
plumbing

 
wood for the wood stove that will eventually be in the living room.

 

Showers...I think this picture might be upside down.  It's hard to tell.

 
Our future tub....I can't wait to use this after a long day working in the yard!

  

Sheet rock is up and drying.  Now it really looks like a house.

 

The garage door is up and the rock on the front of the house.  We move all the way from Humboldt County to North Idaho and guess where the rock is from?  Grants Pass, Oregon!

Doors are being painted and installed soon.

 
Texture is applied to the walls.

  

The north wall is an accent color.  It's called...yeah, don't laugh....Humble Gold. 

  

The rest of the house is the same eggshell color.

 

Lighting goes in on Monday.  We have lovely frosted 'boob' lights.  I suppose if they can call the door in the garage a "man" door, then I can call these "boob" lights!

 

Picking out lights is tough.  I think I was handicapped by a terrifying light shopping incident as a child.  My parents wanted one lamp...I think it took a week and we went to every store that carried lamps in the entire Bay Area.  And then the lamp was butt ugly! 

So selecting lights by myself...well, Q was with me, but I was by myself pretty much trying to send pictures to DD on my phone so he could help me choose while he was at work.  Now that was hard too...I had to find just the right place and hold the phone in the air to get it to pick up enough of a signal.  Not an easy thing with the metal roof in Lowe's.

 

Also have the front and back deck now too.

 

Cleaning up the site today.  The girls weren't too into it...until we got the fire going :-)  Such little pyros!  Wonder where they get it from daddy?

This week the siding is supposed to start.  Electrician comes Monday to install lights, cabinets come Tuesday and are installed Wednesday with the wood laminate and vinyl going down Thursday and Friday.  I'm not sure what else will happen...but we are keeping our toes and fingers crossed that we can be in before the end of November!

Creamy Tomato Soup Recipe by - CHOW

via www.chow.com

The weather is taking a yucky turn tonight (that's an official weather term, you know!) CHOW has the yummiest looking tomato soup recipe. Heavy cream, whole peeled tomatoes, sweet onion and some olive oil are just a few of the ingredients that make it so much better than out of the can! Cook up some grilled cheese on some yummy bread and dip away!